YOU ARE HERE: LAT HomeCollectionsBusiness

Changes in financial regulation

July 22, 2010

The new financial overhaul law triggers hundreds of new rules that regulators must draft and enact in the next two years. Here is a timetable of major actions.

Effective immediately:

•Key appointments — Directors of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Office of Financial Research, which will collect and monitor financial information.

•Resolution authority — Power to seize and dismantle large financial institutions should their imminent failure pose a danger to the economy.

•Shareholder access — The Securities and Exchange Commission to issue rules granting shareholders proxy access to nominate corporate directors.

Within three months:

•Financial Stability Oversight Council — A council of regulators to monitor the financial system for signs of emerging risks.

•Breakup power — The council and the Federal Reserve to require any severely troubled financial firm to sell some holdings should its failure pose a "grave threat" to the country's financial stability.

Within six months:

•Executive compensation — Shareholders granted nonbinding vote on executive pay and retirement packages.

Within nine months:

•Mortgage risk — Sellers of mortgage-backed securities to keep at least 5% of the credit risk.

•Debit card fees — Fed rules to limit fees banks can charge businesses for debit card transactions.

Within one year:

•Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — Independent agency to issue and enforce rules regarding mortgages, credit cards and other consumer products.

•Office of Thrift Supervision — Agency regulating savings and loans to merge into the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which oversees national banks.

•Derivatives regulations — Previously unregulated complex securities to be traded on centralized exchanges.

•Office of Financial Research — New office to start analyzing data for signs of risk to the financial system.

Within 18 months:

•Proprietary trading ban — Rules to prohibit banks from using more than 3% of capital to trade for the firm's benefit.

•Capital standards — Fed to issue stricter rules for required amounts of capital, liquidity and leverage by large, interconnected financial firms.

•Shutdown plans — Rules to require large financial institutions to file periodic plans to dissolve their operations should they go bankrupt or be seized.

Within two years:

•Mortgage disclosures — Simplified rules to combine overlapping disclosure forms for mortgages.

Source: The White House

Advertisement
Los Angeles Times Articles
|
|
|